Somehow Sanders has managed to escape criticism for a similarly bad piece of legislation he supported — the Local Law Enforcement Against Hate Crimes Act — another virtual gift bag for police departments. Hate crime legislation is often accepted as a net gain for minority communities. But in today’s over-criminalized, over-incarcerated, police state, the last thing we need is a new excuse to lock people up, no matter how feel-good hate crime legislation might seem.

While Sanders claims to oppose mandatory minimum sentences, his support for these two draconian bills shows he’s just fine with the status quo so long as he can apply some lipstick to it. The increased sentencing regimes created by these acts further solidifies a permanent prisoner class. This does not look like opposition to an out of control criminal justice system; it appears more like an endorsement of the criminal justice system when it suits Bernie’s surface-level political agenda.